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PlayStation Optical Drive Replacement

Feb 2023

Estate sale find!
Estate sale find!
Not detecting discs
Not detecting discs
Manually spinning the disc
Manually spinning the disc
Original laser
Original laser
New laser
New laser
Switching the laser housing
Switching the laser housing
Good as new!
Good as new!

I found this PlayStation at an estate sale and after taking it home I found that it wouldn’t read discs. Cleaning it with Isopropyl alcohol and adjusting the potentiometers didn't fix the issue. The SCPH-1001 model oftentimes has issues with the laser, so I ended up buying an optical drive from a newer model and swapping them out. Only problem is—since it wasn't the same model, the plastic housing was different! I want all my restorations to look as close to original as possible, so I swapped the old housing onto the new optical drive. Now, it's back to reading discs!